Logs under /var/stm/logs/os in HPUX

Your /var mount point is getting full? You need to check /var/stm/logs/os directory for old logs. Lots of space can be saved by zipping or purging them.

Ever wondered why /var/stm/logs/os is taking up huge space in /var mount point of HPUX? In this post we will see details about logs under this directory and how to handle them.

Most of the times you get /var getting full alerts from your monitoring system or you observe /var is filling up. This is normal behavior since most of the logs resides in /var and if some logs are growing fast they cause /var filling up fast. As a first troubleshooting step, you need to check huge size files and directories in /var.

Many times you see one of the culprit is /var/stm/logs/os directory. If you see inside this directory you will see something like below :

Your next question will be what are these files? what is purpose of these files on server?

These are raw files which are being logged and used by STM i.e. support tool manager. Those are logs collected by STM which has information about your hardware issues. By the above output you can see those are rotated when one log file cross certain file size. While rotating they are sequentially numbered. This numbering makes it easy when it comes to manage those logs.

How to read these logs :

You can read these logs using log viewer by STM. Goto CSTM console using command cstm –

# /usr/sbin/cstm
Running Command File (/usr/sbin/stm/ui/config/.stmrc).
-- Information --
Support Tools Manager
Version A.59.05
Product Number B4708AA
(C) Copyright Hewlett Packard Co. 1995-2007
All Rights Reserved
Use of this program is subject to the licensing restrictions described
in "Help-->On Version". HP shall not be liable for any damages resulting
from misuse or unauthorized use of this program.
cstm>

Make a note that those logs are read by STM as well so if you purge or zip them, STM wont be able to use them.

So be sure you check logs using logtool utility explained above and decide to purge, zip or keep it. Normally, if you are not facing any hardware issues with server currently then you should zip/purge according to time frame I suggested above.